Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-04
FORTS OF SOLID STEEL.
a Bold Idea in Ironwork Such as Might
Abash Great Vulcan.
New Orleans Picayune


When Sir Henry Bessemer began his eX-
perIGents, csst-steel railroad bars were
worth more than 5000 ton; that is the
same thing as saying they were worth so
much that they could not be used at all.
Now they can be bought for SIS to $50 q
ton, and it is certainly impossible to say
that the limit has been reached. The diff
icuity with the costly steel plates for
armor for ships and forts lies in the fact
that they have to be cast By costly pro-
cess, their edges plsned, and then they
must be bolted together and lifted in
place. To make fort is tedious and
very costly process. But Sir Henry him
self SAYS that it is not ut Cessary. No one
has attempted to oDyiatc it, and no indi-
vidual can; but d nation could do it. Sup
pose thst We wish to cast the. side of q
fort in steel say 200 feet long, sixteen feet
high and three feet thick. We have only
to bu Id gigantic mold cut OF brick and
concrete, build CD top OF this mold say
eight or ten twenty-tcn Bessemer con-
yerters capable OF turning out three
charges in twenty-fuur hours; they would
run into the mold a ton of molten steel
every thirty seconds, and the mold would
be filed in sixteen houIs. The melted
steel would sOlidifY as il was poured in,
40 that there would only be six or eight
inches of melted metal on the surface at
any stage of the filling.
1t sounds preposterOus to speak of cast
ing the whole side of fort in one plate
or piece, embrasureS and all. But Sir
Henry says it can be done. He will un-
dertake also 10 cast tie turret for war
ship in one solid piece Of steel. II makes
no difference what shape the fort or turret
is TO take, or where or how many are to
be its loop holes or ports; it is merely
question of building the m3triX in The
first instance in this or that shape. Sup
pose that the face of fort weighs 2OOO
tons; 1t is clear that it could be cast in
single piece for about $40, coo. Built up
of plates in the usual style 1t might cost
ten times that sum. Il Is but step from
this theory to one for the casting Of an
entire fortress. Whether turrets can be
cast as proposed is another question, be-
cause the difficulty of casting them IN stu
would have to be surmountcd. 1t would
not be difficult 10 cast the turret in ma
trix on shore; but TO put it in position al
terwarG would tax the ingenuity Of the
engineers.
Sir Henry says that fort cast in one
piece three feet thick could not be de-
stroyed by any artillery now in existence.
At any rate, the process OF casting being
cheap aud easy, the thickness can be in
creased to any required extent. 1t Is
only necessary that there should be
enough converters in operation to supply
sufficient flow of molten steel. 1t
would need 4 twenty ton converter for
every seventY-five square feet Of horizon
tal section. There Is no limit prac ticslly
to the number of converters which could
be caused TO pour theil floods into q
motrix for q fort, but it would burst the
matr;X if too many converters were
emptying into it at the same time. 1t
would not be unreasonable for Congress
to authorize en- experiment on these lines.